Major Duhan in 1910
Major Harry Taylor Duhan was the 1907/1908 Durban champion. It appears
he won the 1907 event and that there was no tournament in 1908. When
Lucas Bull stopped his column in "The Natal Advertiser" it was
taken over by Major Duhan, who continued it until he was transferred from
Durban to Pretoria in the middle of 1910, when the chess column was
discontinued. Later in 1910, Major Duhan was the surprise winner of
the South African championship, held that year in Cape Town. His score
was 11/14 (11 wins, 3 losses), just ½ ahead of Cameron and Siegheim,
and he won £40 as first prize.
Major Duhan defended his title in a match against Siegheim in 1911,
and was comprehensively defeated by 6½ to 1½ points. He also
played in the 1912 South African championship, held in Johannesburg,
but could only score 5 points out of 9.
According to Len Reitstein's book "A History of South African Chess"
Major Duhan was a professional soldier who came to South Africa towards the
end of the Anglo-Boer War. Reitstein believed that he was born in Bedford,
England, but was unable to discover much about Major Duhan.
Subsequent research by myself in the pages of The London Gazette
and The Times indicates that he was born into the Duhan family
from the East Indies (now called India and Pakistan), where his father
Harry Duhan was a Civil Servant. Harry Taylor Duhan was born in the East
Indies in 1863, and joined the Army in 1885 as a Lieutenant. He served
in India until 1891, when he resigned and joined the Colonial Service
as an Assistant Police Commissioner at Pera, Straits Settlements. He
was wounded in late 1895, and sent to London on sick leave. Whilst in
London, he squandered his accumulated salary of £200 and injury gratuity
of £300, and then appeared in court as his liabilities of £408 exceeded
his assets of £45!
The next mention is as Captain Duhan, the prosecutor in the Pretoria
Treason Trial of August 1900. It appears that one Hans Cordua had plotted
to abduct Lord Roberts, the British Commander-in-Chief. The plot failed,
Cordua was court martialled, pleaded guilty and faced the firing squad.
By 1908 Duhan had been promoted to Major, and possibly retired in 1913
(Majors usually retired at 45 or 50 in the British Army). However, his World
War One medal index card indicates that he served as a Warrant Officer in
the Cheshire Regiment from early 1915 to the end of 1918. Military records
also show that Major Francis Taylor Duhan (aged 42, his younger brother)
was killed in action at Ypres in 1915. His older brother, William Waugh Taylor
Duhan (born 1862), received numerous mentions in the press and in military
records. When William retired in November 1918, having reached the age limit,
he was a Colonel in the Royal Artillery regiment.
After the War, Harry Duhan again got into financial difficulty, and was
placed in receivership between 1921 and 1923. At the time, he was living at
27 High Street, Bloomsbury, in the city of London. His brother William was
buried in Bedford cemetery in 1928, and Harry was buried in Bedford in 1929.
This game was played in the 1911 match for the SA championships:
(score from SA Chessplayer 1977)
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e3 c5 4.d4 e6 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bd6
7.0-0 0-0 8.Nb5 a6?! 9.Nxd6 Qxd6 10.b3 cxd4 11.exd4 b6
12.Bb2 Bb7 13.Rc1 Rfd8 14.Qe2 Ne7?
(14...dxc4 15.bxc4 Qf4 gets play vs hanging pawns)
15.c5! bxc5 16.dxc5 Qf4 17.Be5 Qh6 18.Nd4 Rac8 19.f4 Nc6
20.Nxc6 Rxc6 21.Rf3! (wins material)
21...Ne4 22.Bxe4 dxe4 23.Rh3 Qg6 24.Rg3 Qh6 25.Rxg7+ Qxg7
26.Bxg7 Kxg7 27.Qxe4
(hereabouts Duhan relaxes and lets a won game slip)
Duhan,Harry T - Siegheim, Bruno E
6th match game, Pretoria, 23 October 1911
